Blogs - The (Very) Basics!
mkLINK Internet Marketing Tips(Thursday 14 December 2006)

Blogs/Weblogs : What are these Online Journals?

A 'blog' (weblog) is basically a regularly updated webpage that
has links to other websites with relevance to a certain subject.

For a definition - look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weblog

They have all the attributes necessary to really boost Your Website Rankings...
1) They are updated regularly-meaning Search Engines index them regularly
2) They are keyword rich
3) They attract repeat visitors. These repeat visitors are very highly targetted!
4) They develop loyalty over time
5) Other websites can link to your blog's articles - win win win!
6) Providing fresh content elevates your status to 'expert'
7) Very easy to update

Starting Your Blog : Use Your Own Script or Someone Else's Blog?
There are literally hundreds of blog scripts available - just take a look at
www.hotscripts.com - a great resource for all kinds of stuff. As I have a working
knowledge of PHP/MYSQL (ie database stuff) I am happy to set-up my own blog
- ref. http://www.mklink.com/blog

I have used MyBloggie - simply because it's pretty easy to use and loads of people
have posted good feedback about it - I can certainly recommend it. You might want
to disable other people adding trackbacks or comments - simply because there are
2 forms of spam to be aware of :

1) Graffiti. I.e. bored people writing crap on your blog - or worse still
- saying bad things about you or other people.
2) Link spam. This is usually created by robots that write crap on your blog - but
put a link to someone's website - in the hope of building up their page-rank.

My advice - unless you've got moderators(people who look after the blog on your
behalf) or lots of spare time - just enable access for yourself.

The same is true of a remotely hosted blog - by far the most popular. You don't have
to worry about coding, they are usually very easy to update and everyone's heard
of them - so getting them found can be a lot easier. Also, they are usually upgraded
automatically as new hacks etc. become known.

A couple of the better known ones are www.blogger.com and www.wordpress.com
but please look around - there are loads to choose from. As these blogs are used by
vast numbers of everyday people(which is the whole point), set up and instructions
are quite straightforward. What Should You Write About?
Well, the best thing to write about is something that you know about!
Be creative and try and look at the blog from the point of view of someone else.
Remember to add lots of links to your website(if relevant!) as this will help you
score pagerank.

If you have been reading any of our tips about Search Engine Marketing, try and
keep an eye on keyword density and relevance. Avoid duplication where possible
and never copy other people's work...
- it's immoral, can get you into trouble and won't benefit you anyway!

Try and keep things salient and short. There's so much dross on the internet
- there's no point adding more waffle to it!

You are far better off writing lots of regular, short articles than writing a long one,
very occasionally. Articles of around 100 words or so are fine - longer if you wish.

If you don't want to write the articles yourself - go to www.ezinearticles.com and use
their articles - although you must credit(i.e. link to) the author. Having said that
- this is essentially duplicated content - so whilst it saves time - doesn't really add
much value - as far as the search engines are concerned anyway.

Remember - the articles don't have to be long - so there's no excuse for not putting
up fresh content - as often as possible...

Getting Blog Traffic : How do I get Traffic to my Blog?
Assuming you are a business owner, one of the main reasons to have a blog is to
drive quality traffic to relevant parts of your website. There are tons of blogs out
there, but you needn't be daunted. As the blogging community has expanded, so have
the search engines ability to track them.

Blogs have been classified into categories and listed in blog directories - just like
websites are. The next step is for you to list your blog in the relevant directories.

As putting a list here of blog directories would almost certainly be out of date soon,
I just Googled and got :

http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Weblogs/Directories/

You can submit by hand - or use a tool. One tool I used - and thought it was OK
- if a bit basic - was www.rssfeedssubmit.com.

The main trick is that once the blog has been submitted to the relevant directories,
you need to make the search engines/directories/whoever's interested be aware
of whenever your blog is updated...

RSS Feeds
RSS? Really simply Syndication - although it has been called other things. This
means other blogs and websites etc. can grab content from your Blog and dump
it onto their website! Hooray for common sense! So, rather than loads of people
updating their website - one website is updated which automatically updates
everyone else's that wants to publish the same information. This could be football
scores, weather, news - or indeed your blog article about widgets...

Ping
Nope - I'm not talking about table tennis! This is a service that broadcasts the
existence of either your website - or indeed a new article in your blog.
Have a look at http://www.pingoat.com for example.

I'll be adding more details in the next newsletter - 'till then Happy Blogging!

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